Sealing device for refrigerator doors



Sept. 28, 1965 G. MUFFLY 3,208,810

SEALING DEVICE FOR REFRIGERATOR DOORS Original Filed Dec. 26, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. 4/: a? Muf/Zg Sept. 28, 1965 G. MUFFLY I 3,208,810 I SEALING DEVICE FOR REFRIGERATOR DOORS Original Filed Dec. 26, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

GAE/WV MUFFZY BY M, WfMlMM ATTOPIVEKS United States 3,208,810 SEALING DEVICE FOR REFRIGERATOR DOORS Glenn Muflly, 1541 Crestview Drive, Springfield, (Ithio Original application Dec. 26, 1957, Ser. No. 705,157, now Patent No. 2,950,911, dated Aug. 30, 1960. Divided and this application July 8, 1960, Ser. No. 41,703 1 Claim. (Cl. 312-296) This application is a division of my co-pending application Ser. No. 705,157, filed December 26, 1957, and

is being filed pursuant to a ruling that the subject matter of the claims of the present application is an invention independent of that claimed in Ser. No. 705,157, now Patent No. 2,950,911. The subject matter of the claims of the present application was disclosed in application Ser. No. 235,920, filed July 10, 1951, and now abandoned which was co-pending with Ser. No. 705,157.

This invention relates to a scaling device for refrigerator doors. It was formerly the practice to make the larger sizes of household refrigerators with two doors for access to the food compartment, but in recent years quite large household refrigerators have been equipped with one large door and at present most of these doors are the full width of the cabinet. This causes the door to swing out into the kitchen a distance equal to the full width of the refrigerator, which is very inconvenient in modern narrow kitchens, particularly in view of the fact that architects often reverse one set of plans for a residence or apartment dwelling to produce another floor plan. This causes the building of many left-handed kitchens in which it is necessary to use a refrigerator having its door hinged at the left instead of a standard production refrigerator hinged at the right. A great deal of inconvenience and additional expense is entailed in obtaining left hand refrigerators for those few locations which must have them. There are also some kitchens in which the refrigerator is placed between other fixtures, sometimes being approached from the right side and sometimes from the left side.

It is an object of this invention to provide a refrigerator having two doors hinged at opposite sides of the storage space and meeting atthe vertical center line thereof without the use of any middle vertical member against which the doors close.

, Another object is to provide doors which when opened extend forwardly of the front of the refrigerator a minimum distance.

A further object is to provide for so locating the hinge axes of the doors that either may swing substantially to its full opening without extending beyond the plane of the side wall to which the door is hinged.

Still another object is to provide power-actuated means for opening and closing the doors in response to the closing of an electrical circuit either manually or automatically in response to a signal on the order of the socalled electric eye or other radiant means.

Another object is to provide a refrigerator with twin doors and a system for actuating them in synchronism, either manually or by means of a motor.

An additional object is to provide for gradual acceleration of door movement to eliminate the hazard of injury to small children who may inadvertently actuate the door-operating device.

A further object is to provide frictional or yieldable 'means for the transmission of energy to a refrigerator number of degrees of movement and in another the door is opened a lesser number of degrees so as to avoid interference with an adjacent wall or furniture.

In the drawings: 1

FIGURE 1 is a top view, broken to show some-parts in section, of a refrigerator showing the doors and one form of mechanism to actuate them.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged detail drawing of the hinge for the left hand door.

FIGURE 3 is a partial rear view of the motor-driven mechanism in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a view of the base of the cabinet as seen from the right side, partially broken away to 'show the foot pedal and its connections. I

FIGURE 5 is a partial top view showing a portion of FIGURE 1 as modified for manual actuation of the doors f I without use of the motor and gearing.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged detail ofa portion of FIG- URE 1. FIGURE 7 is a section on line VII-VII of FIGURE 6.

Referring to FIGURE 1, the refrigerator 10 is equipped with doors 12 and 14, hinged respectively at 16 and 18.'

The right hand door 12 is shown by brokenlines at position 12 open to the maximum extent which does not cause it to strike the kitchen wall indicated at 20. The left hand door 14 is similarly shown by broken lines at 14' as fully opened to substantially the full width of the A rod is equipped with a bearing to fit-a crankpin 32 on one of the gears 34 or 36. These gears are driven by the pinion 38 on shaft 40, which is driven through the overrunning clutch 42 by worm wheel 44 and worm 46 which is carried by the shaft of the motor 48. Assuming that each gear 34 and 36 has 60 teeth, that the pinion 38 has 12 teeth, that worm wheel 44 has 28 teeth, that the worm 46 is single threaded and that the motor operates at 1800 rpm, it will be seen that each gear rotates V2 turn for 70 revolutions of the motor shaft which, as-

suming full motor speed, would be accomplished in something over one second. The actual time of opening or closing of the doors will, however, be somewhat greater because of the lag in acceleration of the motor to its full speed.

The motor 48 is energized by closing of theswitch 50 which is open in FIGURE 1 due topin 52 being depressed by switch lever 54. Operation of the foot petal 56 moves the bellcrank 58 and thereby the gear 34 which turns the gear 36 carrying pins 60, allpwing the switch 50 to reclose. This starts the motor 48 and thereby continues operation of gears 34 and 36 after the user has released the foot pedal 56. When the doors reach their open position as shown by broken lines in FIGURE 1 the other pin 60 reopens the switch and the motor stops with the doors in the' open position until the foot pedal is again depressed to start the gears and reenergize the motor. This restarts the gears 36 and 34 in their same directions of rotation. The operator releases the foot pedal as soon as the doors have started to close and their movement continues until a pin 60 again strikes the lever 62 is placed. In FIGURE 1 this pin is placed in the hole located at the shorter radius from the left hand hinge shaft 18. In the right hand crank 26 the pin 62 is placed Patented Sept. 28, 1965.

I rods 30 open and close the doors 12 and 14 by virtue of the fact that the arms 26 and 28 are fixed to the shafts 16 and 18 which serve as hingepi'ns for the doors. During the opening movement of the doors this connection is positive because of the fact that the stops 64 on each of 1 the shafts 16 and 18 engage the door'portions 66 of the hinges as shown in FIG. 2. The hinge pin 18 turns freely in the hinge part 67 which is attached to. the body of the cabinet. The coil spring 24- is under torsion, holding the stop 64 against the shoulder. 68 of the door portion 66 of the hinge while the opposite end of the spring is anchored to shaft 18 at 69. The doors are'opened by positive application of power, starting slowly, accelerating at midmovement and decelerating as the doors reach their open positions.

It'will be seen that the connecting rods 30 and crankpins 32 are approximately at their dead center positions when the doors are closed and again when the doors are open. At these two dead center positions the actuating arm 54 of the switch 50 is' depressed by one of the pins 60, thus opening the switch. .'A slight rotation of the gear 36 will move the pin away from arm 54, thus allowing the switch 50 to reclos'e, energizing the motor 48, which drives the pinion 38 through the ratchetor overrunning clutch 42; The motor 48 will continue to operate until the arm.

54 is engaged by the other pin 60, whereupon the motor circuitis opened and the doors are stopped in either their open'or closed positions as the case maybe. Inorder to provide for reclosing of the switch to energize the I motor 48 for the nextoperation of the doors, whether it betoreclose them or to reopen them, I have provided the pawl 70 which normally stands in the position indicated by solid lines in FIGS. 1 and 3. This pawl'is part of bellcrank 58 which is offset and loosely pivoted so that it tilts beforerotating when moved by foot pedal 56 through the medium of linkage shown' in FIG. 4.

The user of the refrigerator wishing to open or close the doors depresses the foot pedal which actuates the bellcrank 72 and rod 74, the latter being connected with the upper bellcrank 58. Due to the offset shape of bellcrank 58 its first movement is .to tilt against the action of the spring 76, best seen in FIG. 3, moving the pawl 70 from its original position to the position 70" (FIG. 1) whereupon further depression of the foot pedal rotates the bellcrank58 to bring the pawl to the position .70" thus rotating the gear 34 a few degrees and again clearing the gear teeth so that the gear can continue rotation under thepower supplied by the motor 48. Release of the foot pedal allows the bellcrank 58 to first tilt on its pivot, moving pawl from the position 70" to the position 70"". Then the bellcrank 58 rotates, moving its pawl back to the original position 70, by the spring 76. n v

Assuming that this action has been to open the doors it will be seenthat the next operation of the foot pedal will again cause the pawl 70 to turn the gear' 34 through-a few degrees of its rotation and then pass out of engagement with the gear so that the motor 48 is free to complete the reclosing of the doors. During the reclosing of the doors it will be seen that each of the stops 64 (FIG. 2) is moved in the direction which would separate it from theishoulder 68 on the door portion 66 of the hingebut that these stops and shoulders are held in contact by the spring-'24. The purpose of this spring is to allow either orboth doors to be stopped from closing notwithstanding the movement of the gears 34 and 36 which will continue until the next opening of the electrical circuit by the switch 50. This v 4 is a safety provision to avoid injury to a person or to the mechanism in the event of accidental blockingof door movement in the closingdirection, for example, invthe eventthat the user or a'child depresses the pedal while the doors are open and iscaught by the reclosing of the doors.

The torsion of the springs 24 is suflicient to hold the doors closed against their soft gaskets 78' and 78" but not sufiicient to cause injury to a'person. Due to the use of soft door gaskets and the fact that both gaskets are compressedby a toggle action at the vertical contact between the doors it is not necessary to make the springs 24 stiff enough-to endangereven a small child. The doors can be closed by a spring no stronger than is common on screen doors of'residences. As shown, the gasket 78" of right hand door 12 runs vertically in the front of the gap between doors while the gasket 78' of door 14 is at the 'rearof the same gap. This provides a doublegasket in the planewhere doors contact-each other.

This arrangement is shown in larger' scale in FIGS. 6 and 7.- FIG. 7 is an elevation of a portion of the. end face of door 12. This view shows that the gasket 78" of door 12 extends across the upper edge of the end face and then vertically down along the front edge of the end face of door-12.

The gasket 78' of door 14 is shown in FIG. 7 in its relation to door 12, although door 14 is not shown. In this view it is seen that the horizontal run of gasket 78 passes below the horizontal run of gasket 78", and that gasket 78' extendsvertically down along the rear edges of the end faces of the doors, contacting door 12 when both doors are closed, although itis attached to door 14.

In this manner the gaskets 78' and 78" provide a double gasket sealbetween the end faces of'the doors 12 and 14.

The shaft of the motor 48 carries the worm 46 which drives the worm gear 44 which in turn drives the pinion 38 through the medium of a ratchet or over-running clutch 42. This ratchet device allowsthe pawl 70 to move thetwo gears 34 and 36 and the pinion 38 without rotating the worm gear 44. The depression of the foot pedal 56 needs only move the gears far enough to .close the motor circuit in the switch 50. This amount of movement causes very little movement of the doors due to the positions of the crankpins 32 ator near'dead center positions, yet this movement is preferably made 'suflicient to definitely move the crankpins'from dead center positions so that in the eventof current failure the user the maximum movement of the connecting rod, opens the door to the extent of bringing its exterior curved surface into substantially tangential relationship with the plane of the adjacent side of the cabinet. This allows the refrigerator to be placed in either a' right-hand or a lefthand corner of the kitchen. Normally there is room for at least one of thedoors to swing to a greater opening, which is accomplished by moving the ,pin 62 from the end hole to one nearer the hinge axis; This wider opening of a door with the pin moved as described is illustrated by the left-hand door 14, of FIG. 1. In case there is no wall adjacent either side of the refrigerator both pins 62 can be located in the holes which provide the'wider opening of the doors. Since the two doors contact each other on the central line of the'cabinet no vertical stile is required between the doors and the user has free access to the full widthshelves when the doors are open.-

The top of the outer shelliofthe refrigerator is a small distance above the top of the upper insulated wall" re-engage the shoulders 68.

aaoaeie to provide room for the door operating mechanism above described. The front central portion of the space between the top of the outer shell and the top of the liner is utilized to provide a small storage compartment 82 for butter, which should be maintained at a somewhat higher 5 temperature than prevails in the main storage portion of the refrigerator. This butter compartment 82 is seen in FIG. 1 and has relatively thin insulated walls separating it from the main food compartment and from the top of the outer shell. The butter compartment may if m desired be provided with a thermostatically controlled heating element or with thermostatic control of heat transfer from it to the main food compartment so as to maintain its temperature within prescribed limits.

FIGURE 5 shows the rear middle portion of FIG. 1 as arranged for manual operation, omitting the motor and gears. The pull rod 74, actuated as shown in FIG.

4, is mechanically linked with the connecting rods 3t) to actuate the doors without the aid of a motor. Instead of being connected with the bell-crank 58 as in FIGS. 1 and 3, the rod 74 is in FIG. 5 connected with crank 84 which is keyed to a shaft carrying a crank 86 on either end. These cranks actuate rods 88 and thereby the levers 90 to which the rods are pivoted.

Stepping on pedal 56 the user furnishes the energy 5 which acts through this mechanism to move both doors, each in its opening direction. The weight applied to the foot pedal must be sutficient to cause the spring 29 to stretch. At the start of this movement the hinge springs 24 aid in rotating the shafts 16 and 18 until the stops 64 30 The springs 24 may be omitted, using plain hinges and threading the pins 62 directly into tapped plates on the doors if desired. In that event the spring 92 will replace the springs 24 in taking up the slack back to the pedal 56, holding it against its stop and in supplying the spring pressure against the gaskets 78' and 78".

In either case the user bears down on foot pedal 56 until the spring 92 passes over the fixed pivot 9d, after which this spring urges each door in its opening instead ofits closing direction. The levers move forward to their dotted positions or farther depending upon where a stop is provided. If no special stop is provided the doors will be opened until one of them is stopped by an obstruction or until some other limit is reached such as the contact of pedal 56 with the floor on which the refrigerator rests.

- To reclose the doors the user need push only one of them in its closing direction until the spring 92 is carried past its position of maximum extension, after which this spring will complete the closing of both doors. The spring 92 then holds both doors closed, taking the slack out of linkage between 56 and the doors, and it also holds the pedal 56 up against its stop, which may be on the cabinet or on the door 12.

The pedal 56 is preferably located below the right hand door 12 so as to extend forward of it as seen in FIG. 1, but not extending forward of the foremost portion of the doors. This provides easy access to the pedal without allowing it to interfere with moving the cabinet through 60 the kitchen door. For the same reason I prefer not to place any handles on the doors where they may be in the way. In place of door handles each door may be provided with a recess which provides a hand hold for pulling the door open, as at 96 in FIG. 1. These hand holds are for emergency use, such as to open the motor-actuated doors when current is not connected or has failed. The hand holds are not necessary with the arrangement shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. 1 the doors are started to open by the foot pedal and it the motor is not energized the doors can be opened either by hand or by repeated operation of the foot pedal.

The pedal 56 and the crank arm 98 (FIG. 4) may be made in one piece, but I prefer to mount them on a shaft, placing the arm 98 at the extreme right of the cabinet base where it will not interfere with the condensing unit, with a lower extension of the food storage space, nor with a freezer drawer such as I have shown in my co-pending U.S. application S.N. 74,528 filed February 4, 1949, issued May 31, 1955, as Patent No. 2,709,343.

The doors as shown in FIG. 1 will always open simul- I taneously, though one may be set to open to a greater angle than the other. They can, however, be arranged so that either door may be manually opened while the other remains closed. This may be provided for in FIG. 5 by making each of the rods 88 with a slot, in one end, as

indicated by broken line at 89. This allows either door to be opened by hand independently of the other door, its

lever 99 then coming to rest with the spring 92 passing into alignment with the fixed pivot 94 so that the spring is not effective to move either door. By providing for more angular movement of the levers the manual opening of either door will carry the spring 92 past center and cause the other door to open.

The rod 104) is preferably threaded at its forward end to receive the eye 102, thus providing an adjustment to take up lost motion and compensate for wear in the linkage. This provides for the spring 76 or thespring 92 holding the pedal 56 up against its stop, making the full pedal movement available, and preventing any rattling of the linkage.

The doors 12 and 14 are shown curved, but they might be fiat. It is preferred that they meet some distance forward of the plane of their hinge axes in order that the fa springs 24 or spring 92 will continue to urge'the doors into contact with each other when closed.

FIGURE 3 provides a rear view of the bellcrank 58 and its spring 76 which has one end anchored at 104 to the mounting plate 106. This plate is bent to extend above the top insulated wall of the cabinet and carry the studs 108 and 110 on which gears 34 and 36 are mounted.

It may also extend to support the switch 50 if desired.

An optional method of starting door movement is to I provide a switch, as at 12 in FIG. 1, for closing the circuit to motor 48 when the switch 50 is in the open position The switch 112 may be manually operated by the foot pedal 56 or otherwise, as by the relay device 1 of FIG. I.

114 in response to an electric eye or other signal pick-up device.

The refrigerating system is not shown except for the condenser M6. The cooling element or elements may be located in any desired manner and the system may be of any suitable type.

FIGURE 1 shows a rack attached to the inner side of door 12. Such use of. the extra space afforded by the door curvature may include both doors with some varia- I of doors hinged on vertical axes parallel with each other, I

each door having a hinged end which is hinged to one side of the access opening, and having a free end which swings in opening and closing movement, the free end being formed with a confronting face which, in the closed 7 position, confronts the corresponding face of the other door, but is spaced from the end face of the other door, the improvement which comprises, in combination, a soft, compressible gasket extending around each door vertically along the confronting face, horizontally between the horizontal edges of the door and the horizontal edges of the access opening and vertically between the hinged end of the door and the edge of the access opening, the soft gasket being of, such thickness that it is compressed throughout its entire length by pressure applied to it by the closing of the doors, the runs of gasket on the confronting faces being compressed solely by squeezing action applied by the closing of'the doors, the two door gaskets being spaced from each other on the confronting faces of the doors to form a doubleseal at the confronting faces;

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 1,188,086 6/16 Labrie 20-16 1,755,7 8 *4/30 Morse 268-63 J 8 1,918,911 7/33 Hun -2o 3s 2,408,132 9/46 weq k s 2 268-44 x 2,743,488 1 5/5 Thygeson 20-16 FOREIGN PATENTS 932,452 9/55 Germany.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner. Y GEORGE L. BREHM, Examiner. 

